Royal and Noble

Royal and Noble

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 146. AN AUSTRIAN ROCOCO CARVED GILTWOOD BRACKET CLOCK, MID-18TH CENTURY, DIAL AND MOVEMENT ASSOCIATED.

PROPERTY OF COUNT CZERNIN OF CHUDENIC

AN AUSTRIAN ROCOCO CARVED GILTWOOD BRACKET CLOCK, MID-18TH CENTURY, DIAL AND MOVEMENT ASSOCIATED

Auction Closed

January 21, 06:17 PM GMT

Estimate

35,000 - 45,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

PROPERTY OF COUNT CZERNIN OF CHUDENIC


AN AUSTRIAN ROCOCO CARVED GILTWOOD BRACKET CLOCK, MID-18TH CENTURY, DIAL AND MOVEMENT ASSOCIATED


7¾-inch dial with mask and scroll spandrels, enamel chapter ring, the engraved centre with mock pendulum aperture, signed on a boss in the arch Johann Bentele, Salzburg, No. 612, the associated French movement with Chevalier de Bethune escapement, pull quarter repeating on two bells, with alarm train but with no alarm connection to the dial, the boldly carved case surmounted by a female figure and putto above male and female figures representing the four seasons, the scrolls incorporating birds and wild animals, all against a marbled red ground, the conforming bracket carved with Atlas supporting metamorphic figures representing the four continents,

Clock 98cm. 38½in. high: Bracket 71cm. 28in. high

In sheer grandeur and sumptuousness, the carving of the present clock case is most unusual and although probably by a different hand, it is rather temping to compare this clock with a musical table clock by the Bamberg clockmaker Leopold Hoys from circa 1745, which Sotheby’s sold in the ‘Treasures, Princely Taste’ sale, 6 July 2011 in London, lot 9 for £421,250. The Hoys clock, which originally was possibly also intended to be placed on a conforming bracket, is of comparable large size (112cm. high) and has a similar highly exuberant and daring composition including figures (putti), animals and a-symmetric rocailles. The style and the quality of both the case of the Hoys clock and the present clock indicate that these were probably executed by a master sculptor instead of a ‘regular’ clock case maker.


Although being catalogued as Bamberg/Franconian the Hoys clock also has some clear Austrian connections. Not only was Leopold Hoys born in Vienna in 1713, he also served his apprenticeship - between 1726 and 1732 with the Klagenfurt’ clockmaker Christopher Pruner - and became a Master clockmaker in 1739 in Austria. He only later moved to Bamberg in 1742, where in 1745 he became head of the guild of clock and watchmakers and in 1757 court clockmaker to the new Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim.


Furthermore, the Hoys clock bears the arms of Franz Stefan von Lothringen (1708-1765), who was married in 1736 to Archduchess Maria Theresa, daughter of Emperor Charles VI of Austria and became Holy Roman Emperor in 1745, on which occasion the Hoys clock probably was commissioned.


There is even a further possible connection between the commission of the Hoys clock and the present clock: According to family tradition, the present clock first came into the Czernin family with their ancestor count Johann Rudolf Czernin (1757- 1845) to adorn the newly rebuilt Czernin Palais in Prague. The building of the Czernin Palais was started mid-17th century by count Humprecht Johann Czernin, then twice devastated - first by French troops in 1742 and then again in 1757 by Prussian troops - and was then rebuilt/restored by Johann Rudolf. However, it is just as likely that this clock came into the family through Johann Rudolf‘s wife Maria Theresia Czernin, born countess Schönborn - Heussenstamm (1758-1838). Through her great-grandfather count Melchior Friedrich of Schönborn-Buchheim (1644-1717), Maria Theresia Czernin was directly related to the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, Friederich Karl von Schönborn (1674-1746) who possibly commissioned the Hoys clock in 1745.